File folders are staple articles usually found in stationery stores for use in offices and various business establishments. It is well known to provide folders with or without pockets, and several methods have been described in the prior art for making pocket folders. However, the known methods of making pocket folders are cumbersome and expensive particularly since they are made and used in large quantities. Several prior art type folders and their deficiencies are described in various patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,485 issued Aug. 25, 1992 to Ralph E. Welt describes a prior art folder with pockets referring to FIG. 1 thereof, made from a standard size piece of cardboard. As mentioned in said patent, the method described for making the folders are expensive and does not meet customers' demands. Various other patents are mentioned in the Welt patent, all of which describe different pocket folders and methods of their manufacture, but concludes that none of said patents disclose folders having separate file folder pockets which can be pre-formed conveniently and inexpensively and thereafter attached to a folder.
In order to overcome the expensive and cumbersome prior art methods of manufacturing folders with attached pockets, the Welt patent discloses an “inexpensive” method that involves making a pocket for application to a folder, and comprises die-cutting a sheet to form a plurality of sheets in a single die-cutting operation, forming in the sheet fold lines defining a pocket panel, a bottom tab for attachment along a bottom edge of the folder panel, and a side tab for attachment along a side edge of the folder panel; and applying to each of said tabs double coated pressure sensitive adhesive tape having a protective coating on one side thereof which is peelable therefrom for adhesive attachment to the folder panel. In the method of the Welt patent, the large panel folder is formed by single die-cutting a large folder sheet using the so-called “guillotine-cutting” process and thereafter folding the sheet along a fold line to form two generally rectangular folder panels each having a side edge parallel to the fold line, a top edge and a bottom edge. The pockets are then applied to the folder panel sheet as hereinbefore described.
While the Welt method is somewhat of an improvement over the prior art, it nevertheless does not offer the simplicity and inexpensive method described in this invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive method of making pocket folders, also called presentation folders, which are simple to make and assemble by the consumer.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method of making the presentation folder from previously formed pockets and folder sheet and attaching the pockets to the folder sheet.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a kit comprising a folder sheet and pocket sheets with instructions for the consumer to follow in making the presentation folder by attaching the pockets to the folder sheet.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide a kit comprising the different components used to make presentation folder with attached pockets.
The foregoing and other objects and features of the present invention will now be described in the ensuing detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which form part of this application.